misoptimize

M3I1S1O1P3T1I1M3I1Z10E1

verb

To optimize badly, emphasizing the wrong criteria or failing to take advantage of potential improvements.

Scrabble 26

Meanings

verbmisoptimize (third-person singular simple present misoptimizes, present participle misoptimizing, simple past and past participle misoptimized)

present singular third person misoptimizes · participle present misoptimizing · participle past misoptimized · past misoptimized

  1. To optimize badly, emphasizing the wrong criteria or failing to take advantage of potential improvements.

    In addition, many individuals may not be misoptimizing, so taxing or subsidizing them may introduce new distortions.

    2017, Robert A. Moffitt, Tax Policy and the Economy - Volume 31
    3 more examples

    Is anything like this going on inside the program in question as ported to Pleiades? Unless a complete static analysis of the generated object code is done, or unless every input data set is run through a correct version of the program and the output compared with that of the misoptimized version, nobody knows.

    2010, Ralf Gruber, Vincent Keller, HPC@Green IT: Green High Performance Computing Methods, page 81

    Inattentive consumers are misoptimizing: they fail to recognize opportunities to save money by choosing products with lower ancillary costs.

    2013, Fereidoon P. Sioshansi, Energy Efficiency: Towards the End of Demand Growth, page 148

    This effect is related to the broader philosophies of libertarian paternalism (Sunstein and Thaler, 2003), which advocate policies that do not infringe on freedom of choice but could improve choices by the subset of people who misoptimize.

    2015, Ottmar Edenhofer, Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

misoptimize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misoptimize

MLA

“misoptimize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misoptimize. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misoptimize,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misoptimize.

Source: misoptimize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.